"The Skiff and The River", by John Keats

My all-time favorite book of the Thousand Islands is Of Time and An Island by River resident John Keats. This book, in my view, captures the spirit, challenges, and the feel of living on an island in the Thousand Islands.

I have read John Keat’s book numerous times and have loaned my copies to friends and those visiting our cottage on Wellesley Island.   The book takes me back to my childhood at our summer home on Grindstone Island. The author came to the River in 1947, which is the year of my birth and the year that my parents purchased our River cottage. So it’s no wonder that I can identify with his writing about the River. Life was much simpler then – no public power, no telephone lines, no city water, and little if any government regulation. Keat’s book focused on the small things in life that make life on the River so special.  Being self-dependent, small boats, antique fishing rods and lures, old boathouses, low-horsepower engines, and of course fishing and swimming in the River.  Not surprising that my copy of Of Time and An Island has dogeared and yellowed pages.

Three years ago, my friend Larry Kuhl told me about his late neighbor Roger Green, who had built a wood rowing skiff. (Roger also built his cottage on Lake of the Isles). Roger built a Rushton 14 Skiff at the Antique Boat Museum (ABM) in a class with seven other fellows. He liked the Rushton so much that he built his own skiff in his 100-year-old barn over the next winter. Roger also built kayaks for his granddaughters. After Roger passed away, his widow Joan eventually sold their cottage and now lives in Liverpool, NY. Larry told me how nice the skiff was to row and how special was Roger’s workmanship. This led me to write a column about Roger and his skiff and other home-built vessels. (This article was published in an earlier issue of Thousand Island Life - February 2025.)  Having never met Roger, I interviewed Joan to get details and photos of the builder and the skiff. After publication of my story, Joan offered to sell the skiff to Anne and me, as she wanted it to return to the River. Naturally, we jumped at this opportunity.

The article brought Joan and me together as friends and pen pals. In March, Joan emailed me that she had come across Roger’s copy of The Skiff and The River by John Keats. She told me that it has a number of color illustrations of paintings by River artist Michael Ringer. Having not read this book before, Joan offered to send it to us in Stuart, FL.  It arrived safely, and I was surprised to see that Michael Ringer had autographed it to Roger and included the notation “Memories.” Wow!!  How special is that? I thanked Joan for such a special gift and then proceeded to dive into this book by Keats.

The book was copyrighted in 1988 and was printed in Syracuse. The back cover has a painting by Michael Ringer showing a Rushton skiff being rowed past bridges over the International Rift. The front cover features another Ringer painting entitled The River with a skiff off a small island in foggy conditions. Ironically, Anne and I have owned a print of this Michael Ringer painting for many years. It hung in our Annapolis, MD home and now is in our cottage on Tennis Island North.   How is that for fate?

Once I started to read The Skiff and The River, I could not put it down.   Keats gets into the genesis of the St. Lawrence River Skiff, the people who have built them, and how the design has evolved. It also focuses on how the skiff changed the North Country. For anyone who loves to row or wants to row, this book is special. It goes into details about the construction of the St. Lawrence Skiff, and how different builders in New York and in Ontario varied the designs. Different woods, variations in the keel and overall length, and how guides learned to sail the skiff are among the areas that Keats explored. Imagine sailing a beefy skiff, which lacks a rudder, in gusty conditions!! Many sailing skiffs did not have a deeper keel or centerboard, although some later builders added collapsible or folding keel/centerboards that retracted into the bottom. 

After rowing Roger’s Rushton 14 for two years, this book was much more meaningful to me. While there is a huge difference between a Rushton 14 and a St. Lawrence Skiff, there are many similarities. Most important is how these boats glide through the water and how they can handle waves and wind. With the proper-sized oars, both designs are easily driven by the oarsman. Each stroke equates to considerable progress in the water. The shape of the bow, gunnels, keel, and stern all work together to make the boats maneuverable and efficient. Of course, in any rowing design, the weight of the hull is critical. Keats writes of how different interpretations by different builders of the St. Lawrence Skiff changed the weight, turning characteristics, and sea manners on competing designs. It’s easy to understand why River fishing guides rowed and sailed these skiffs to catch fish with their clients.

I find that John Keats’ writing style draws you into his books. He is very readable and clear in his descriptions of the boats and the River. It must be his background as a newspaper writer that makes him easy to read, yet able to communicate many details. Keats wrote for The Washington Star newspaper in Washington, DC. In fact, once he and his wife purchased their island near Rockport, ON in 1947, John would commute from there to their island home on weekends to be with his wife and children. This was before the interstate highway system was completed. Therefore, his drive would take at least 14 hours each way.   After leaving work in DC, he would not arrive on their island until dawn the following morning. That was true love of the River and the lifestyle that he and his wife had chosen for their family.

Eventually, Keats gave up working for the newspaper and started to freelance for magazines and then moved to writing books. The leaf page lists 14 books that he wrote. He received a commission to write a story for a fishing magazine about catching a muskie. This story is a favorite of mine. Keats and his wife tried for weeks to catch a muskie from their small gasoline-powered launch. They took a fried chicken, a fifth of Canadian whiskey, and a pound of chocolate to sustain them on each of their fishing adventures in all kinds of autumn weather on the St. Lawrence. After what seemed like weeks, they finally hooked a large muskie, which his wife struggled to get alongside their launch. The big fish rolled on its side, spied his wife, and kicked its tail to cut the leader.  His wife fell back into the boat in tears. In the process, I am sure that they spent much more on fuel, chicken, liquor, and chocolate than what the article paid. Oh well, life on the River is not always easy.  

Mr. Keats explores the different builders on both sides of the border and how their subtle changes in design and materials impacted the skiffs that they built. It seems that each builder had a slightly different approach to their St. Lawrence Skiffs. You get a sense of the character of the men who constructed these different skiffs. In many cases, the work took place over the long winters in the North Country.

Today, there are few men left willing to build a St. Lawrence Skiff. Thom Inglehart built a number of lovely skiffs in his workshop on Wellesley Island, and I had the pleasure to see these boats compete in a regatta off Laundry Point a few years ago. I hope that this boatbuilding skill is not lost to the ages as it helped put our region on the map.

Of Time and An Island is in its second or third printing. The River and The Skiff, as far as I can determine, is out of print. I tried to find the book on Amazon, but with no luck. I did locate three used copies on eBay and the sellers were asking from $75 to $100 plus shipping. Perhaps some of the stores in Alexandria Bay, Gananoque, Rockport, or Clayton might have used copies for sale? Or perhaps our local libraries have copies?   In any event, I recommend reading this volume if you can locate a copy.  I’ve got to believe that some River Rats have copies in their island cottages. It is a must read for those who row skiffs and who love the River. And thank you again, Joan Green for this wonderful gift. (Of course, I would be willing to loan my copy on the condition that it be returned in good order.)

The last page of the book has an award by the ABM presented to Harold E. Herrick, Jr. in 1980 for “his tireless effort in the location and restoration of the St. Lawrence Skiff.” The Herrick Collection of Nantucket, MA is the publisher of this book and holds the rights to the piece. Finally, starting in 1977, John Keats was a professor of journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University. He moved there from Philadelphia to be closer to his summer home and the River. John Keats died in November 2000 in Kingston, ON, at the age of 79. 

By Rick Casali Sr.

Rick Casali is a resident of Wellesley Island. During his youth, from 1947 to 1976, his parents had a cottage on Grindstone Island named The Orchards. Rick now splits his time between Stuart, FL, and the River. He worked for Columbia Gas System for 29 years and ran their Washington, DC office. Then in 2000, he started brokering boats and yachts, and he continues as a broker with North Point Yacht Sales. Rick and his wife Anne, cruise the River in a recently purchased 1968 Chris Craft 31 Commander, which they named "Foxtrot". They also have a Seaway 24 named "Miss Annie". You can see many more of Rich Casali's past TI Life articles here.

Editor's Note: Recently Sarah Bodine provided TI Life with a series of nine bed-time stories. Sarah is a writer, editor, designer and book artist. She spent the summers of her childhood at her great-grandfather’s house, known as Cliff Cottage, on the Ontario side of the St Lawrence River near Rockport. The three Keats children were her cousins, and she often ran an outboard across the Canadian channel to spend the night on Pine Island. John Keats, fondly known as JK, made Roscoe Fish the main character in his bedtime stories, which were loved by all the children. To this day, the next island generation is forever looking for Roscoe under the boats in the slip. Here is a link to meet Roscoe and we hope you will once again enjoy his escapades...